Skylanders: Swap Force

The third in the Skylanders series, follow up to 2012's Skylanders: Giants.

Platform

Developer

Release Date

Nov 15th 2013

Nov 12th 2013

Oct 18th 2013

Oct 13th 2013

Story

The story and background for the new types of toys is as detailed below:

In Skylanders: Swap Force, Portal Masters embark on an all-new adventure in the mysterious Cloudbreak Islands, home to a mystical volcano that erupts every hundred years to replenish the magic in Skylands. During an epic battle, a brave group of Skylanders were caught in the volcano's eruption, which blasted them apart and sent them to Earth. But, the magic of the volcano gave these heroes a remarkable new power -- the ability to swap halves -- turning them into a special team known as the Swap Force.

Meanwhile, Kaos is back with a new evil plan. And now, Portal Masters everywhere must reassemble the Swap Force -- in their original form or in new combinations -- and send them back to Cloudbreak to save Skylands!

Characters

As well as being able to use all of the Skylanders from the original two games, Skylanders: Swap Force introduces 32 brand new characters to play as. This new lineup is made up of 16 Swap Force Skylanders which break apart into two pieces that can be mixed-and-matched between them all and 16 new regular "core" Skylanders that won't have the swapping feature.

Tech

Magna Charge

Spy Rise

Countdown

Wind-Up

Heavy Duty Sprocket

Big Bang Trigger Happy

Lightcore Countdown

Nitro Magna Charge

Kickoff Countdown

Springtime Trigger Happy

Water

Wash Buckler

Freeze Blade

Riptide

Punk Shock

Blizzard Chill

Anchors Away Gill Grunt

Lightcore Wham-Shell

Dark Wash Buckler

Nitro Freeze Blade

Fire

Blast Zone

Fire Kraken

Fryno

Smolderdash

Fire Bone Hot Dog

Lava Barf Eruptor

Lightcore Smolderdash

Volcanic Eruptor

Dark Blast Zone

Jade Fire Kraken

Undead

Night Shift

Rattle Shake

Roller Brawl

Grim Creeper

Phantom Cynder

Twin Blade Chop Chop

Lightcore Grim Creeper

Legendary Night Shift

Legendary Lightcore Grim Creeper

Quickdraw Rattle Shake

Life

Stink Bomb

Grilla Drilla

Bumble Blast

Zoo Lou

Thorn Horn Camo

Ninja Stealth Elf

Lightcore Bumble Blast

Dark Ninja Stealth Elf

Legendary Zoo Lou

Jolly Bumble Blast

Magic

Hoot Loop

Trap Shadow

Star Strike

Dune Bug

Super Gulp Pop Fizz

Mega Ram Spyro

Lightcore Star Strike

Dark Mega Ram Spyro

Enchanted Hoot Loop

Enchanted Lightcore Star Strike

Air

Free Ranger

Boom Jet

Pop Thorn

Scratch

Turbo Jet-Vac

Horn Blast Whirlwind

Lightcore Warnado

Legendary Free Ranger

Earth

Rubble Rouser

Doom Stone

Slobber Tooth

Scorp

Hyper Beam Prism Break

Knockout Terrafin

Lightcore Flashwing

Dark Slobber Tooth

That includes new poses for 16 old characters from the first two games and eight Lightcore versions of new and old, bringing the total number of new playable toys to 75. That's a grand total of 174 toys if you include the 99 from Spyro's Adventure and Giants.

In the brand new Starter Pack you will get three Skylanders, that's two Swap Force and one Series 3 returning Skylander. It'll be Wash Buckler, Blast Zone and Ninja Stealth Elf for the consoles and Free Ranger, Rattle Shake and Volcanic Eruptor for the 3DS. There is no Portal Owner's Pack this time due to the need to use the new portal.

To help differentiate between the old and new sets, the base of the Skylanders for Skylanders: Swap Force will be blue instead of the green/orange currently seen on the Spyro's Adventure and Giants toys.

Adventure Packs and Battle Packs

There will be two new Adventure Packs and two new Battle Packs as part of Swap Force. The Adventure Packs are called Tower of Time and Sheep Wreck Island. The Battle Packs are called Fiery Forge and Arkeyan Crossbow.

Tower of Time includes new Skylander "Pop Thorn" as well as the Tower itself and two Magic Items "Battle Hammer" and "Sky Diamond".

Swap Force Abilities

The new Swappable characters can do more than just swap, each of them has a movement ability associated with their lower half, this ability can unlock the special Swap Zones that you'll find in each level.

These abilities are exclusive to the swappable Swap Force characters and have not been retroactively given to existing characters. Just like there are two new characters for each element there are two characters for each ability (you can still manage to get one of each element and have one of each movement type if you choose them carefully).

Portal of Power

The game uses a brand new Portal of Power, redesigned to be able to recognise the ever changing forms of the Swap Force toys. It is unknown whether the new portal will work with Spyro's Adventure and Giants so don't go throwing the old portal out just yet.

To help with the swapping in the 3DS game you will be able to load in all of your figures rather than be stuck with the limit of just two figures that you had in the last two games.

Platforms

The game will appear on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS as well as on mobile devices and the web.

Comments

The story on how good/bad this game is, or at least my experience with it, is kinda a long one.
During the era of Giants, I think that’s when Skylanders was at its peak popularity and basically there was nothing to hate. As well, the Skylanders Universe online world, as well as 3 super addicting mobile apps, just kept the fun going wherever you were. Arguably, that time was perfect. However, after a certain point, 2 of the 3 mobile apps weren’t being kept up to date and one was completely thrown out the window, but thankfully the best app (you know the one: Lost Islands) was still being attended to, kept getting updated, and it was still addicting. Then came what was the most devastating withdrawal of the entire series: removing the online world that was Spyro’s Universe. After that, about 30% of my interest in Skylanders was slightly shattering, and was a bit more into Minecraft from then on, and the console games were only kinda fun, but I still played lost Islands on a daily basis. Then < 1 month before SWAP Force was released, I hit a huge depression and deep dive in my self-esteem, I stopped playing Lost Islands and was barely excited about the arrival of SWAP Force. In fact, my mental state was so rough I cared more about my Skylanders looking like their toy forms than them being strong in game, so I formatted so many of my Level 15, fully upgraded, gold ranked Skylanders from the previous games, and with that, playing SWAP Force became more of a way for me to be un-self-conscious than actually have fun, since I started feeling super insecure and decided to completely hide my love for the series. After that year, I was forced to go to boarding school, where I only had the little times I had at home to play Trap Team, but that’s a different story. Either way, when Trap Team came out, I’d never thought I’d play Swap Force again.
Seeing as how the series has kinda come to an end (unless Activision decides to update Ring of Heroes another couple of times) I played back through all the games, and now I see how Swap Force could have been the ultimate game if I had the same mindset for it as I did with Giants. I would continue my present day views of SWAP Force, but I don’t want to make this comment too long. Bottom line is, the game is masterful, beautiful, and a definite up from the other games, even though that doesn’t exactly mean a step FORWARD, although it might be. More on that in another comment.

I've been away from the site for more than a few years now (I think the last time I was on was 2013), but this game just popped into my head a few days ago. I think it might be because I was thinking about the Spyro reignited trilogy, but that's for a different post.

I really loved Spyro's Adventure and was really into it. I was also a big fan of Giants. I got Swap Force a little after it's release and I remember I thought the concept was so cool, but it wasn't a game that I anticipated like I did Giants (mainly because of my love for the first game). This was the last Skylanders game that I got, mainly because I was getting older and focusing more on other things.

I haven't played the game in a while, but I remember that the levels were a bit longer than I liked and I actually never completed the game.

Unike the first game, I only bought the starter pack and 2 other new characters (Rattle Shake and Grilla Drilla). I remember I always wanted Stink Bomb and really did love the whole concept of being able to swap top and bottom halves of characters. I actually went on ebay and saw that some of the characters were pretty good prices so I ended up purchasing a used Stink Bomb, Night Shift, and Free Ranger, as well as a Series 3 Trigger Happy and Series 2 Pop Fizz. (I am currently debating on getting either Magna Charge or Freeze Blade and I'm not sure which one to get so any help would be much appreciated)

I am currently in college, just finishing up Finals week, and i'm actually pretty excited to get back into this game when I get home. Hopefully giving it another go will reignite the magic from the first game.

Although I am excited to try this game again, I definitely will not be getting any of the newer ones. I think that Swap Force is one of the most innovative ideas that they came up with and the new ones just aren't for me anymore. That being said, I hope that anyone who enjoys them keeps enjoying them and everyone has a great Holiday!

Second best; nonparie combat and balance for the series create thrilling fights paired with properly placed platforming and puzzles to breathe in. The levels feel like a rollercoaster as a result. Everything feels satisfying and clever to play, and there is a ****ton to do. This is easily the most satisfying entry to "master" playing, as its challenge actually asks for this without becoming overly difficult, slow, or ever being bull****. The nick is that the art is subpar and story is lame, and grindy quests are a poor replacement for Heroics and Giants' own quests. Due to the story and art, though I would argue this is the best entry as a pure game (just edging out the original), it's not the absolute best experience on the whole.